The primo jazz event of the spring will be SONNY ROLLINS's concert at Symphony Hall on April 18 (bso.org). The great master saxophonist and peerless improviser often hits town in April, and this time it's to kick off his 80th-birthday tour. Whew.

Coming right behind Sonny in headliner status is PAT METHENY, who brings his strange — and possibly wonderful — one-man-band Orchestrion project (the subject of his new Nonesuch disc) to the Orpheum on May 20 (livenation.com).

But there are plenty of other big deals coming to town this spring, leaders in the field, if not necessarily household names. The Celebrity Series of Boston (celebrityseries.org) brings the great singer DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER to the newly renovated Paramount Theatre for two nights (March 27-28) to perform material from her Billie Holiday project, and vibist STEFON HARRIS to match his jazz-improv chops and his training as a classical composer in a concert with Imani Winds at Jordan Hall (April 16).

The Wilbur Theatre's calendar of pop and stand-up comedy has expanded to include jazz, thanks to a partnership with venerable local booker Fred Taylor. The programming (which kicked off with the John Pizzarelli show on February 28) continues with singer LIZZ WRIGHT on April 8 (ticketmaster.com).

Taylor continues to hold the fort at Scullers Jazz Club (scullersjazz.com) with a mix of legends like ROY HAYNES (March 26-27), PAT MARTINO (April 14-15), and IRMA THOMAS (May 21-22) plus younger stars like CHRISTIAN SCOTT (March 24) and GRACE KELLY (April 1) and stalwarts like TERENCE BLANCHARD (April 21) and CYRUS CHESTNUT (May 7-8). Also at Scullers, singer (and former WGBH radio jazz host) RON GILL returns to town to celebrate the release of his new album with guitarist JOHN STEIN (April 7). Singer AMANDA CARR reprises her success with the KENNY HADLEY BIG BAND (May 5).

The theatrical meta-jazz group the QUARTET OF HAPPINESS follow up their March 14 Cambridge YMCA Theatre show with their Scullers debut on May 18, as they celebrate the release of The Monster Returns (Creative Nation Music). The Happiness's cousins on CNM, guitarist GARRISON FEWELL'S VARIABLE DENSITY SOUND ORCHESTRA, bring their exciting version of collective improv to Johnny D's on March 31 (johnnyds.com).

Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008 Trans Am are distillers of guilty pleasures, mixing fat AOR riffs with sleazy electronic accents and a propulsive attitude typically reserved for arcade soundtracks. What Day Is It Tonight? covers the DC-area band’s 20-year history with high-quality, high-energy live cuts taken from their many tours.

Various Artists | Panama! 3 If you purchase a copy of Soundway’s wonderful Panama! 3 — and you should — you get two things for the price of one. First, this is a carefully curated CD of “Calypso Panameño, Guajira Jazz & Cumbia Típica on the Isthmus 1960-75” that will keep you smiling — and perhaps dancing — for a healthy while.

The Big Hurt: Lambert works it, 50 blows it, Moz ends it ADAM LAMBERT 's spicy AMA performance continues to dominate entertainment headlines, weeks after it first scandalized the nation — but why does America care what a man does with another man in the secluded privacy of the American Music Awards?

Winter warmers Sure, some bands take the easy route and have album releases through the summer, enticing you to shows with back-patio barbecues and all-night rooftop after-parties. In January? Not so much.

Beyond Dilla and Dipset With a semi-sober face I'll claim that hip-hop in 2010 might deliver more than just posthumous Dilla discs, Dipset mixtapes, and a new ignoramus coke rapper whom critics pretend rhymes in triple-entendres.

Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010 The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.

Review: In Search of Beethoven Phil Grabsky's exhaustive documentary doesn't exactly dispel any stereotypes about Beethoven's being a shaggy genius prone to rages.

FRED HERSCH TRIO AT SCULLERS | March 01, 2013 Fred Hersch's output as a composer includes an orchestrated setting of poems from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass as well as other art-song fare for singers.

THIS SPRING'S JAZZ &AMP; WORLD MUSIC SHOWS | February 28, 2013 The saxophonist Chris Potter started drawing attention when he joined the group of legendary bebop trumpeter Red Rodney as an 18-year-old Manhattan School of Music student.